Apple is deleting local music files on people's hard drives

[Tom Servo]

Way, way back in the day, I had that first generation iPod. The one with the little touch wheel thing and a gameboy screen.

I went to sync it one day and the sync basically went the wrong way. Instead of putting the music on my computer onto the iPod, it removed the music on my computer that wasn't on the iPod (which was all of it).

I'm personally of the opinion that, unless you explicitly say "I want to delete this file", no syncing application should *ever* remove a file. Hell, even when syncing the Amazon S3, you have to explicitly pass an option saying "delete remote files that aren't on the local file system".

[thesameguy]

Where this guy is coming into trouble is that Match can replace song files with files served from the iTunes Store if it can supply them in higher quality, and will upload songs and re-serve them if it can't find a match to what's in his library. All of this is explained right on the iTunes Match splash page, so unless he chose to not read anything before subscribing, he would've seen it.

But nowhere does it say "We'll replace things with non-exact matches" and nowhere does it say "We will downsample." And it did both things to him.

[thesameguy]

I went to sync it one day and the sync basically went the wrong way. Instead of putting the music on my computer onto the iPod, it removed the music on my computer that wasn't on the iPod (which was all of it).

I'm personally of the opinion that, unless you explicitly say "I want to delete this file", no syncing application should *ever* remove a file. Hell, even when syncing the Amazon S3, you have to explicitly pass an option saying "delete remote files that aren't on the local file system".

I had the same thing happen, and I am damn good at computers. I also agree there is never a scenario where an algorithm should modify a filesystem without explicit permission from the operator. Bad design.

[Rare White Ape]

I also agree there is never a scenario where an algorithm should modify a filesystem without explicit permission from the operator. Bad design.

I agree with this.

But nowhere does it say "We'll replace things with non-exact matches" and nowhere does it say "We will downsample." And it did both things to him.

I can't agree with this. If it was a problem, then why aren't there any other subscribers complaining of the problem? If a solution is so hard to find, as he says it is, then it's probably because he is the only one who has had this problem, and I think it's because he's just stuffed something up himself and he's blaming Apple. I've explained the difference, which this guy seems to have missed, between Apple Music and iTunes Match, and to me it flags him as someone who's lacking in attention to detail.

Bear in mind I'm not defending Apple here (although I probably am... YOU DECIDE!) instead I'm attacking this guy's position. It's more fun.

[MR2 Fan]

more info:

http://m.imore.com/no-apple-music-no...ss-you-tell-it

I'm still undecided on whether there's more to the original story....but I wouldn't be surprised if music was deleted accidentally. I feel like it's happened to me before using Apple but I can't remember exactly.

[SkylineObsession]

I have iTunes, but only to purchase songs legally (instead of torrents etc like Limewire). Don't use it as a player, still use the AWESOME (...) Window Media Player. Oh well.

I assume i'm safeish from the above?

[Tom Servo]

Probably, but given my past experience with iTunes on a Windows box, I'd still keep backups.

FWIW, I prefer Amazon MP3 these days for music buying. Unencrypted MP3s that will play on anything.

[Freude am Fahren]

Probably, but given my past experience with iTunes on a Windows box, I'd still keep backups.

FWIW, I prefer Amazon MP3 these days for music buying. Unencrypted MP3s that will play on anything.

Same here. A lot of physical albums on Amazon come with free rips as well, so if you like having the physical copy, you can still have the MP3 immediately for the same price or only slightly more.

[Tom Servo]

Hell, it was cheaper for me to buy a couple of albums on CD and have them shipped, and I still got instant access to the MP3s.

[thesameguy]

I bought one single once with iTunes and that was enough. Since then, it's been legitimate Napster (seriously) or Amazon. Mostly Amazon. I hate that they rule the world, but they do it so nicely (from the consumer's standpoint ) it's hard to really get mad.